UNSOLVED: The Library Murder Pt. 2
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What happened in the Betsy Aardsma murder case?
After 22-year-old Betsy Ardma was stabbed to death at a Penn State University library in 1969, it seemed like her murder would remain a mystery forever. But that all changed in the early 2000s. As the internet completely altered the way people exchanged information, two citizen detectives became determined to solve her case. And thanks to them, we might finally know who killed Betsy. And why.
people's lives are like a story there's a beginning a middle and an end but you don't always know which part you're on sometimes the final chapter arrives far too soon and we don't always get to know the real ending i'm carter roy and this is murder true crime stories a crime house original every tuesday i'll explore the story of a notorious murder or murders At Crime House, we want to express our gratitude to you, our community, for making this possible. Please support us by rating, reviewing, and following Murder True Crime Stories wherever you get your podcasts. Your feedback truly matters. And to enhance your Murder True Crime Stories listening experience, subscribe to Crime House Plus on Apple Podcasts.
You'll get every episode ad-free, and instead of having to wait for each episode of a two-part series, you'll get access to both at once plus exciting bonus content. This is the second of two episodes on the murder of Betsy Ardsma, a 22-year-old graduate student at Penn State University. On a late afternoon in 1969, she was in the library looking for a book. Minutes later, Betsy was dead.
The End
When 22-year-old graduate student Betsy Ardma was stabbed to death in Penn State's Petit Library in November 1969, her murder sent shockwaves through the community. Betsy was sweet and bright, the kind of person you'd love to count as a friend, which was a huge reason why so many people wanted to help find her killer. In the years after Betsy's death, police honed in on two suspects.
Who were the initial suspects in Betsy's murder?
The first was Bill Spencer, a disgraced former instructor in the Penn State Art Department. At a Christmas party a few weeks after Betsy's murder, Bill told several guests that he knew Betsy and that she had even posed nude for one of his sculptures. He went on to say how easy it would have been to murder her. His unsettling comments were reported to the police, and Bill was brought in for questioning. But detectives quickly realized Bill didn't even know Betsy. He was just doing whatever he could to insert himself into a high-profile murder investigation. After cutting Bill loose, police turned their attention to one of Betsy's classmates, Larry Moorer. Now, Larry did actually know Betsy, but he also knew one of the witnesses, Marilee Erdley, and Marilee had seen Betsy's assailant running from the crime scene. The three of them were in the English department together, and Marilee was able to confirm the man she saw that day was not Larry.
by the time the authorities had ruled out bill spencer and larry moorer as suspects they had lost precious time and it was too late for them to notice another potential murderer hiding in plain sight It wasn't until decades later that two citizen detectives realized the police were looking in all the wrong places.
How did citizen detectives Derek Sherwood and David DeCock get involved?
In 2009, 40 years after Betsy's murder, Derek Sherwood and David DeCock were investigating Betsy's case. Growing up, Derek's father worked at Penn State. As a child, his parents would tell him about the female student who was killed in the library. When Derek got older, he started reading about Betsy's case. And eventually, he decided her death should be more than a cautionary tale. He wanted to make sense of the decades-old mystery and bring her killer to justice. By the time the case picked back up in 2009, Derek had a blog that was a well-researched, well-documented archive of information on Betsy's life and death. As for David, he and Betsy had gone to the same high school in Holland, Michigan, although they never crossed paths.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What happened in the Betsy Aardsma murder case?
0:40–3:47
2
Who were the initial suspects in Betsy's murder?
3:47–5:20
3
How did citizen detectives Derek Sherwood and David DeCock get involved?
5:20–9:31
4
Could Richard Hefner be linked to Betsy's murder?
9:31–12:57
5
What was Richard Hefner's relationship with Betsy Aardsma?
12:57–31:09